Finish Line - End Of An Era

Fate has put me in the bittersweet position of being the last active HOT ROD editor to have known, or at least met, most of the originals from the first few years of the magazine. That includes Robert E. Petersen, Wally Parks, Eric Rickman, Ray Brock, Ak Miller (not on the staff, but heavily involved), and even Andy Granatelli, who—it may surprise you to know—was on the very first issue’s masthead. All those men have passed away. Sadly, Tom Medley has joined them—lost in March, just shy of his 94th birthday.

1/2Tom Medley’s relationship with HOT ROD started when he was a freelancer who appeared on the second masthead. Our last official connection was his appearance at the HOT ROD Homecoming in March 2013, where people stood for an hour to have a chance to meet him.

You learned the basics of T-Med’s life earlier in this issue (page 84). It always saddens me that the memories and accomplishments of the hot rodding pioneers can never be fully captured in any volume of articles, photos, or even videos. Those guys did and saw far too much, and when they go, so goes an inestimable resource. The best we can do to memorialize them is to consider how their influence can affect our work on this magazine, and even our own lives.

I met Tom Medley around 1998 when I was the editor of Rod & Custom, which Medley helped shape into the magazine that essentially created the street rodding niche. Tom’s son Gary and I were reminiscing about his dad when I mentioned that Medley was already old when I met him. By then, he’d lost half of his jaw to a problem with a bone cist—a seemingly devastating operation—and Gary said, “He took that in stride. I guess when you live through the Depression and then survive World War II, things like that don’t seem like a really big deal.” If I could apply any Tom Medleyisms to my own life, it’d be that “what, me worry?” outlook that went hand in hand with his legendary prankster personality. The photographic archives of the Petersen Christmas parties capture the real Medley as the MC, always in mid-laugh, which was his norm.

Medley lived down the street from me in the house where he’d been since 1956, and it’s among my many regrets that modern life and my own work intensity kept me from visiting and getting to know him well. I’d run into him around town occasionally and several times tried to strike up conversations about the early days, but he wasn’t forthcoming with historic info about the publishing company (though his Battle of the Bulge tales were gripping, and he remained passionate about go-karts and fishing to the end). Maybe it’s because there were more important things. After my long conversation with Gary about all the incredible things his father had done in his life, he said, “and aside from all that, I couldn’t have had a better dad. We always did things together, the kart racing and everything, like he was my best friend.”

Another life lesson learned.

Best Instagram Pic This Month

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During the filming of our Roadkill Episode 26, Mike Finnegan’s family-heirloom toolbox was stolen from our production truck. In an amazing display of gearhead good karma, Eric and Jake Roswarski saw our Facebook post and brought Finnegan their own Craftsman box as a replacement.